1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the manufacture of high density, high performance semiconductor devices. More specifically, this invention relates to the manufacture of high density, high performance semiconductor devices utilizing a reduced number of steps during the manufacturing process.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In order to remain competitive, a semiconductor manufacture must continuously increase the performance of the semiconductor integrated circuits being manufactured and at the same time, reduce the cost of the semiconductor integrated circuits. Part of the increase in performance and the reduction in cost of the semiconductor integrated circuits is accomplished by shrinking the device dimensions and by increasing the number of devices per unit area on an integrated circuit chip. Another part of reducing the cost of a semiconductor chip is to increase the throughput of the fabrication facility (the "fab").
A single semiconductor chip requires numerous process steps such as oxidation, etching, metallization and wet chemical cleaning. Some of these process steps involve placing the wafer on which the semiconductor chips are being manufactured into different tools during the manufacturing process. As can be appreciated, a reduction in the number of process steps in which the semiconductor wafers must be moved from one tool to another can be a major increase in the throughput of the fabrication facility as well as a major decrease in the cost of manufacturing the chips on the semiconductor wafer.
Therefore, what is needed are methods of reducing the number of processing steps necessary to manufacture semiconductor wafers on which semiconductor integrated chips are manufactured.